In sausage stuffing machines of the type to which this invention is directed, the sausage is formed by extruding sausage meat into a casing. The sausage is guided into the casing by a filling tube, over the outside of which a gathered sleeve of a casing material is mounted. As the sausage emerges from the end of the tube, it engages a closed casing wall and thereby draws the casing material off the end of the tube. It is important to control the diameter of the sausage by applying more or less resistance to the movement of the casing material as it comes off the tube. This has been done by use of a casing braking ring which is located adjacent the tip of the tube and by controlling the annular gap between the ring surface and tip to increase or decrease the braking pressure on the casing material.
In machines known to the prior art, the adjustment arrangement has been difficult to easily achieve and reliably maintain. The components which require manual manipulation are heavy and require extensive material and machining to produce. They are also difficult to manually adjust and difficult for ordinary workers to comprehend and operate satisfactorily.